ESO to mark Earth Day in Salalah

The Environment Society of Oman (ESO) is organising two Earth Day events in Salalah this year where the native frankincense tree will be planted. The first event will be held today at the Applied College of Science under the patronage of Shaikh Salim bin Ali al Katheri, Majlis Ash’shura representative for Salalah. Student volunteers will help plant the trees around the college grounds. The second event will be held in co-ordination with Salalah Municipality tomorrow at the Al Luban park, in Adonab and the event is open to the public. Dhofar is an area rich in biodiversity with more than 700 native tree species. Many of these wild species are used in medical treatments and are also a source of economic, notable examples being Frankincense and other fruity species. Unfortunately, desertification has become one of the major environmental challenges for these native tree species. Other concerns are overgrazing and pollution. These threats have been extending rapidly in Dhofar Governorate. Moreover, the planting of non-native trees affects the local eco-system in a negative way with intruder species consuming water and resources, and reducing the growing area of local species. Other wildlife species are affected as part of the local food chain as well. “Maintaining the local eco-system in order to protect native species and investing in our local biological resources require us to take urgent actions. As a start the Environment Society of Oman (ESO) will implement a Native Tree Planting Campaign “Let’s Plant One” in Dhofar between April 2012 and February 2013. More than 12,000 trees will be planted,” the group said in a statement. The action of planting more than 12,000 native trees in Dhofar will enhance the eco-system in Dhofar and initiate the local trend to adopt native trees as a first option for individual public and private institutes. Moreover, ESO is planning to deliver an awareness campaign in the second stage of this project for different age groups and to increase the environmental awareness level amongst people and corporates in Dhofar; and orient them about the importance of local species as a main pillar of the local ecosystem. The objectives of this training programme are for all the participants to benefit in the following ways: (i) Protecting the native species by planting them and train different stakeholders on conservation purposes (ii) raising awareness among all participants in issues related to the importance of native species, and (iii) developing effective volunteerism programmes in Dhofar, where people will be trained to organise their effort and work more effectively to protect the Dhofar environment.